Mount Holyoke was recently selected as a Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation Campus Center due to its demonstrated commitment to anti-racist work and addressing systemic racism in the community. This will allow the DEI Committee to develop a long-term vision to create racial healing opportunities on campus, which includes restorative justice, collaborating with nearby communities and student feedback.
Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion hosts workshop with Nick Daily
On Nov. 29, a workshop titled “Queer and Trans Inclusion in the Classroom and the Workplace” provided students and faculty with an opportunity to build community on campus. The event was described on Embark as one in which “participants [would] explore relevant LGBTQ+ history, contemporary LGBTQ+ dynamics within the educational context — including identity development theories, educational and social trends, and more — engage [with] concepts of allyship and advocacy and have the opportunity to apply these learnings to the Mount Holyoke community past, present and future.”
Kijua Sanders-McMurtry: Mount Holyoke’s first chief diversity officer
BY ANNAMARIE WIRE ’22
Mount Holyoke’s first chief diversity officer Kijua Sanders-McMurtry began her work with diversity at an early age. Raised in Pasadena, California, her parents were activists who belonged to an organization that was in part responsible for the founding of Kwanzaa. “I really feel like my parents being in this very radical organization, [that was] honestly misogynistic in the way it treated women, made me really question and interrogate [...] differences, culture and diversity,” she said.